(Photo of hybrid taxi in New York at night from Flickr and and photographer Tim Shey)
News Update 1: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced last week that his city will roll out 300 new hybrid taxis every month. There already are 1,300 hybrids on the street and each one saves its driver $6,500 a year in fuel, the mayor said. No word yet on a Chicago alderman’s plan to convert his city’s taxi fleet to hybrids, but the Chicago Police Department announced the purchase of 165 new SUV squad cars. The Chevy Tahoes will get 14 mpg, a fleet spokeswoman said, the same as the Crown Victorias that make up most of the fleet. The new (former FBI man) police chief apparently wants SUVs. So why not the Ford Escape? It’s an SUV hybrid that gets about 30 mpg. This is supposed to be Chicago, the Green City, right? So where are the bicycle rentals? Where are the hybrid taxis? And what has become on the vaunted Chicago Climate Action Plan due out last winter? (Sources: Chicago Sun-Times, Greenwire,
Reuters)
1 comment:
I couldn't agree more with this post regarding the lack of Green on our taxi fleet. I visited NYC and Boston, and they have Hybrid Camrys all over the place. In Boston, taxi companies are being compensated/assisted by the city to afford these new cars, but in Chicago...?
It makes it worse that Chicago taxi has such a bad rep for screwing people, beating up people, and getting into accidents.
One comforting thing: Despite the recent fare changes, Chicago ranks pretty low among the US cities for Most Expensive Taxi
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